Scarier than Halloween
by AgentOfAngst
Summary: Wendy doesn't feel like celebrating Halloween the same way she has in the past after the events of the summer. Everything is changing, is it time for her to change too? Day six of my seven days of Halloween!


**Last year I focused on Dipper and Mabel and how they might celebrate their last Halloween together. This year I wanted to focus on how Halloween and life in general might be seen through different eyes after the events of Weirdmaggedon, specifically, Wendy's eyes. I'm following my own personal canon that Marcus (the oldest of Wendy's three brothers) is older than her, which might not actually be the case. Also I'm not even fully sure that Gravity Falls is set in 2013 but that's what I go with.  
**

**Tomorrow we're wrapping up the challenge with the most Halloween of all Halloween franchises, Over the Garden Wall. My own little Beast is watching me from the corner, so I better not mess this up. Enjoy and review!**

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"You're not going to my Halloween party?" Tambry asked, sounding surprised but pretending to be unbothered, a polished sense of apathy.

"No, not this year. Probably next year."

"Aw, what? You love this kind of thing," Robbie reminded, wrapping an arm around Tambry's waist as he joined the conversation.

"Yeah, I'm just not really up for it this year." Two pairs of eyebrows momentarily furrowed in concern. But then both deemed themselves too cool to look like they cared in front of their partner. So Robbie and Tambry said nothing.

"Suit yourself. The party's going to be off the hook though," Robbie assured.

"I'm sure it will be."

"Robbie V. and the Tombstones will be playing," he added, still trying to entice his friend into changing her mind. She did not.

"I'm sure you'll do great. I don't know what I'll do on Halloween. I just don't think I'd be any fun at a party this year."

Speculation ensued, among the group and among strangers who didn't know her but knew she was a fixture at Tambry's parties. But not this year. Was she pregnant? Depressed? Homicidal? Homosexual? What secret was she keeping, was it a romance, a rival? Rumors followed Wendy after she made her position on the party as clear as possible as kindly as possible. The gossip was hogwash, but she didn't stop it. She didn't care. The truth was it all just felt too normal, and normal felt too isolating. This summer had been insane. She'd faced death time and time again. She'd struggled with things so much bigger than her and something like an off the hook Halloween party just felt small. If she went to this party, she'd be trying to fit herself into a box that she'd outgrown. She hadn't outgrown her friends, she likely never would, but she was different now. She had watched everyone she loved turn to stone and that kind of changed a person.

It didn't take long for her dad to hear that she wasn't going to Tambry's party. Kevin or Gus had snitched on her. Marcus wouldn't dare. It didn't really matter who told him. The problem was that he knew. There was a loud, house shaking knock on the door. Like it was a raid instead of a chat.

"Come in," she knew it was him. No one else knocked like an earthquake. Until she had blossomed into womanhood, no one had knocked at all. It was almost comical to see her big, burly dad holding a small, delicate plate of chocolate chip cookies. He held the peace offering out towards her, he could tell something was up. She took the plate and bit into a still slightly warm cookie. She didn't know which brother had made them, probably Marcus, her older brother. Manly Dan didn't really cook. Okay, he cooked some, but not very well. If they wanted good food, or cookies, or any type of baked goods, they made it themselves. Marcus was the best at it, he'd learned from mom, little Gus was the worst. Gus almost always got burned, so it probably hadn't been Gus.

"I heard you're not going to Tambry's party."

"Yeah. I'm not pregnant or gay that I know of but I'll keep you posted." Manly Dan looked surprised before he remembered exactly what high school kids were like and decided not to question those two statements. Wendy probably would let him know if she were pregnant or gay. Wendy was trustworthy. Ish.

"Is there any particular reason you're not going?"

"I just don't feel up to it."

"Are you sick?"

"No, things are just different now." She doesn't have to explain. He knows, he remembers. He remembers this past summer, but he remembers more than that. He remembers every time his worldview had changed, meeting his wife, the birth of each of his children, losing his wife. When something big happened, it wasn't always the easiest to fall back into your routine. Some things had to change. Not everything had to change, but life couldn't just stay the same.

"Well, it's up to you, but if you want, you can go trick-or-treating with your brothers instead." She would think about it, but it seemed unlikely.

"I don't know..."

"Well, there's no pressure. Just another option."

"Thanks, dad. For the option, and the cookies, and the listening." Wendy gave him a hug.

"Of course." His worldview was constantly changing because of his kids. It would have been foolish, would have been immature, if he didn't change too.

So Tambry and Robbie and her dad all tried to reach her for Halloween, trying to figure out what would make her happiest on what used to be her favorite day of the year. They pulled from their own dissimilar perspectives trying to provide a solution to a problem even Wendy couldn't put into words. The strangest thing was that the closest solution so far had just been listening. Robbie and Tambry and most of her other friends were too cool to listen, so they accidentally isolated her. Most of her friends.

The doorbell rang. It felt like it was a bit early for trick-or-treaters, but Wendy had agreed to hand out candy, so she let the door swing open. It wasn't a trick-or-treater.

"Thompson, I'm not coming to the party," Wendy said quickly.

"I know. I don't expect you to. I was wondering if you wanted some company and if you wanted to talk about what's been going on.

"Oh, sure. Pull up a chair." She didn't normally spend one on one time with Thompson. He was odd but caring, fun to be around because he made people feel at ease. Like anything was possible.

"So what's been going on?"

"Everything's been different since summer ended. I don't exactly know how to explain it, but I almost lost everyone that I cared about, I nearly lost myself. I don't think I can act like I'm apathetic anymore. I don't think I can act like the only thing that matters is a party."

"Sometimes I think we just want stuff like that to be the only thing that matters. Because with a party, it's random enough to be fun, but we still have enough control to feel safe. We don't have as much control in real life, so it scares us."

"Yeah, scared is a good word for it. I don't know how to be scared, I guess some things have always put me on edge, but this is different. For the first time, it feels like the whole world is a threat."

"There's a fine line between being cautious and being terrified. Try not to go too far, but eventually, everyone has to learn how to be cautious-"

"You do stupid stuff all the time," Wendy reminded.

"Fair point. I kind of think the reward outweighs the risk."

"Right. Maybe you should be more cautious."

"I'm still learning, just like you."

"I wish I could unlearn. I wish everything could be the same as it was. I wish I didn't have to worry about losing my family and friends." Thompson looked her in the eyes, studying her face for a second, giving her a comforting smile.

"You're not going to lose us, Wendy. Things will change since we're growing up, but you'll always have us." Wendy felt better than she had before. She hadn't wanted to go to a party that felt irrelevant, but she'd worried about losing her friends if she wasn't the same person she used to be. Right now, she didn't worry about that as much.

"Do you want to watch creepy videos on our phones?" Wendy asked, getting more into the spirit of Halloween. Thompson grinned and dusted off a two-year-old classic, Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. After they'd finished the short video and were moving on to the nine-episode saga of Salad Fingers Thompson turned to her with a question.

"Do you think they'll make a sequel to Don't Hug Me I'm scared?"

"It's been two years. There's no chance that there will be a second Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. What would they even do?"

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**Lowkey ship Thompson and Wendy. **


End file.
